Why Casual Friendly Would Stop ARR From Dying

[SkyeWindbinder]

If you deny casual players the chance at good gear, they will lose interest in the game and go away. SE had already previously mentioned plans to knock down the difficulty of old content (yet they didn't do it), so at least at some point they agreed with OP.

But the thing of it is, no one is being denied the chance at good gear. The gear is there for everyone to try and get. It's being denied to no one. You just have to be willing to put in the time and effort to get it. And if some can't/won't do it for some reason or other, that's hardly the fault of the content of the game. If SE was going to knock down the dfficulty of old content and changed their minds about it, I'd like to think that was because they realised that it would do more harm than good, dumbing down content just to make it easier for a few casuals to play "catch up" with the hardcore players.

[EinSoFZ]

If you deny casual players the chance at good gear, they will lose interest in the game and go away. SE had already previously mentioned plans to knock down the difficulty of old content (yet they didn't do it), so at least at some point they agreed with OP.

Just me being personal about this and I'm sure others would agree...the old content wasn't hard at all. Like you could have a 50 job in a short time and do just about every single thing in the game. Every single thing. The only difficult battles were maybe hard Nael and Ifrit extreme. Even Garuda was not so so difficult. Knock down the difficulty? On content that's already not hard? That's truly funny to me. Getting gear just meant repeating a certain few tasks.

Denying casuals the chance at good gear....I thought we were playing for the experience and that as we elevated good gear came with it. If a casual feels they're being denied anything, it's only in their own head. As it was, anyone could have gotten any gear quite reasonably. Didn't get Darklight? That's not really a terrible problem. Instead of enjoying the journey, too many people want what they want right away It's quite sad.

[urhryu]

sometimes i think casual players should really behave casual...

[Zumi]

The raid finder that Yoshi is putting in is aimed directly at casual players. He said it himself that it is an extension of solo play where someone can log in queue up whenever they want have the game put the group together. That way you don't need an organized group with set times to play. A lot of so called casual players don't have set groups of people to play this game with so stuff like raid finder works better for them.

[HiirNoivl]

You think Relics are casual?? What casual players were beating Ifrit Extreme??

.... Ifrit X is a thirty minute fight. So long as people know what they're doing, it's casual friendly...

Me thinks Crystal Tower will take some scheduling for someone with less time to fit in though.

[Kiote]

Let's face it. Modern MMOs don't last. LOTR, RIFT, SWTOR, GW2, TERA etc, have all essentially died down after a few months of release, to the point where some have gone free to play.

I couldn't really stomach reading another post about how only Casual MMOs will survive, but I thought it was only fair to point out that you have listed, as failures, some of the MOST casual MMOs that have ever been made.

People need to get this through their heads. MMOs do not get millions of steady subs. Half a Million is a run away success. WoW was a fluke that hit perpetual mass. Blizzard doesn't have some magical formula.

[Kiote]

.... Ifrit X is a thirty minute fight. So long as people know what they're doing, it's casual friendly...

Agreed. If all you need to do is get seven friends to try until you win. It's casual.

[Platinumstorm]

I only read your TLDR and part of your intro since I instantly disagreed with your assessment of the games [agree with parts of your overall sentiment].

LOTR, RIFT, SWTOR, GW2, TERA etc

LOTR has found incredible success as an F2P, and it has one of the most reasonable F2P schemes that exists.

Their default gameplay is easier than World of Warcraft and far less intruiging, which is why they struggled in the first place.

RIFT might have had some "die down" but I consider it the only WoW clone to have found real success in the market; they don't deserve to be on your list.

TOR has struggled and been forced to adapt to F2P because it's gameplay isn't engaging. It's one of the worst designed MMOs I've personally experienced and I could go on for pages about this.. in fact I have, and if there was a spoiler bar I would post it here.

Little experience on GW2 but they really pushed the hype train out on it, and it's hard to classify it as an "MMO" since it follows the structure of the first game.

TERA is bad for a litany of reasons.

-----------

Many MMOs really limit themselves to having a set player base - often the 18-21 year old who is either talented, an underachiever, has an easy major, trust fund baby, or has a job and no other responsibilities.

These people grow up, get more responsibilities, run out of money, and then they're out of the market entirely.

Successful modern mmos have been able to fit all of these players into their game, while still also giving the traditional players some sort of modicum of an advantage. World of Warcraft does this nearly flawlessly, but also errs on the side of too much of an ease [raid finder]. Their game is designed so you can accomplish something over a lunch, but that same dungeon might take another group an hour on a harder difficulty setting with a better reward.

In FF games you literally have to throw a set amount of your life away to accomplish something. I watched my entire Blu Ray and DVD collection, as well as a few TV series while running Hamlet Defense or gathering trees for turn in and I was still unable to obtain all 12 of my seals [missing 4]. My brother completely ran out of anything he wanted to watch but was able to get all of his seals.

It was repetitive, it wasn't fun, I didn't become a better player, and all I could hope to do was consciously turn off so that time would pass faster.

We're 2 years later from launch, and they're almost ready to have fixed the majority of problems in the game, hurray. We're all 2 years older. I'm becoming a physician assistant [they're like nonsurgical doctors] and I'm going to be lucky to find free time, and I can tell you that if 2.0 is set up similar to 1.0, I won't be able to accomplish anything [crafting alone took hours certain days], and I won't be contributing a subscription fee to the game.

This doesn't mean it has to be easy - in fact I don't want it to be easy. If there is something I can organize for, get into quickly, and fail at it before I learn it to eventually conquer it, that's terrific. It's what I want. I don't want something to be just handed to me because I pay a subscription fee.

If it takes someone like me 3 months to level through uninspired content, they're not going to stick with the game. The relic weapon requirements are uninspired requirements, whereas the AF quests were sometimes, but generally not, inspired.

In World of Warcraft, I know what I do will change. I won't be able to raid, but I know there will still be content I can participate in that's challenging, and allows me to make progress [challenge dungeons and PVP]. Simultaneously, public raids will prevent me from suffering an unconquerable gap once I'm done with my education. I know that, if I choose to, I can retain my subscription to that game while I'm in school.

If FFXIV struggles with this, they aren't going to maintain the man who gets married, the mother who just got a great promotion, the couple expecting a child, or someone who just encountered a horrible medical circumstance. Basically, they won't be able to retain to a significant degree people who don't fit into one of those small categories I mentioned earlier in the post.

[Ralos]

While I don't agree that FFXIV should become a more casual friendly MMO, I do agree with the sentiment that they should move away from making the game a rush to the end.
My first year in FFXI was memorable and amazing =).
It took me almost exactly one year to get my first 75 job, and that was OK. There was a lot of content to do as I was leveling up as well.

That being said, the game is how it is now. Getting to the endgame content is quick and once ARR comes out it'll be quicker. We'll just have to wait and see weather or not we get bored with the content we're given, quickly or not.

[Platinumstorm]

My first year in FFXI was memorable and amazing =).
It took me almost exactly one year to get my first 75 job, and that was OK. There was a lot of content to do as I was leveling up as well.

----------

Tell that to everyone who unsubbed despite wanting to play an FF mmo. My experience with FFXI was spend hours trying to make groups, gain minimal xp through a grind, and log off in frustration because now that I've finally made a group, I have to go to bed to attend to RL responsibilities. I left because it wasn't a smart use of my time and there wasn't enough content to make the experience enjoyable.

However, if you do put in strong enough systems, you can prevent leveling from being a "rush to the end". I'd like an experience leveling too, but it has to be so much more than what I described above.